Archive for November, 2015

I may have looked in Pelicano Coffee and Tea House the week before, I cannot recall, but probably did and made a mental note

Lovely atmosphere, though very tiny. There is seating out the back, and I think, but cannot be certain, more seating upstairs.

Wonderful and very tempting choice of cakes. Spoilt for choice. Do they make? I do not know, and did not ask, but they looked, if not, a local bakery.

I ordered a cake and a cappuccino.

The cake was as delicious as it looked.

The coffee, not gold standard and in many ways a disappointment. It looked good, but something not quite right. Though I hasten to add far superior to the disgusting hot liquid they serve in Costa or tax-dodging Starbucks.

They roast their own coffee, and maybe therein lies the problem. At least if they have not laboured and learnt under a master coffee roaster.

What I saw today was Parisians ready to take back their city from fear. In multiple ways, people defied attempts to sweep away dissent and insisted on their right to protest, assemble and disagree passionately with their governments. Even if one does not agree with every action that took place, this general atmosphere of defiance is something to celebrate. After all, government response to the climate crisis is wholly inadequate + puts us all in great danger. Obedience in the face of this failure would be tantamount to acquiescence. — Naomi Klein

This is a disgrace and should not be tolerated, French police using tear gas and pepper spray against peaceful climate protesters.

In the turmoil, there is greater opportunity for a terrorist attack, not less.

Once again, we see Police and the State abusing Emergency Powers.

If the Emergency Powers are to be used for targeting activists and peaceful protesters, then they should be scrapped.

To introduce Emergency Powers during the weekend of the Paris atrocities, was the right thing to do, including closing borders. To extend beyond, for at least 3 months, was not necessary, and as we see, open to abuse.

Climate activists have had their homes raided, computers seized, been subject to house arrest.

Police should be spending their time looking for terrorists, preventing terror plots, protecting citizens, not attacking peaceful protesters.

All climate marches have been banned. Whilst on the surface this appears reasonable, scratch a little and it will be seen not to be. A football match will go ahead, a trade fair will got ahead, a Christmas market.

Large gatherings of people are permitted if there is money to be made.

Bombing will not rid the world of Isis. It will increase the threat of terrorism, as did bombing Iraq, which led to a doubling of MI5 budget. It will kill civilians, which will lead to more joining Isis as they seek revenge.

We appear to have leant nothing from the bombing of Iraq and Libya. Both countries have been destroyed. Both countries are now training grounds for terrorists. We have triggered a wave of migrants into Europe, the like of which we have never seen. Terrorists are using this migrant flow to enter Europe.

We have home-grown terrorists, supporters of Isis are not a tiny minority within Muslim enclaves. In the slums of Brussels, from which two of the Paris terrorists came, there is active recruiting for Isis.

We bombed Iraq on a lie. We bombed Libya with very little critical analysis in Parliament. Why is there a rush to make the same mistakes?

Disagreements within the Parliamentary Party, on foreign policy, on military issues are nothing new. I remember when 139 Labour MPs broke the whip after Tony Blair, with no consultation with Labour Party members, with no consultation with Labour MPs, ordered Labour MPs to vote for the disastrous and illegal war in Iraq…Many of the people attacking Jeremy Corbyn got it gravely wrong on Iraq…Jeremy Corbyn got it correct…and I do believe if we ask ourselves the question of whether or not the UK bombing in Syria is in the interests of the Syrian people, in the interests of the wider region and in the interests of British security, I think Jeremy Corbyn’s got it correct again.

The onus is on those who wish to rain bombs down on Syria, to show what is different this time, how will it remove Isis?

Isis has already change tactic. They are no longer driving around in convoys.

What of the civilians?

No coherent strategy has been put forward by David Cameron.

Avenging the atrocities in Paris by dropping bombs, is not a strategy.

Russia has been bombing Isis for over a month. It has made not an iota of difference.

US has been bombing Isis for at least a year. During this period, Isis has been able to expand the territory they hold.

The forces on the ground Cameron alludes to, do not exist.

Kurds are the only effective fighting force. They are only interested in defending Kurdistan, not liberating Syria

The men the Americans trained, can be counted on one hand, what is left of them.

Money and weapons from from Turkey and Saudi Arabia has to be cut off.

Cutting off money is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Isis is self-funding. Taxes, sale of slaves, money from people trafficking, sale of oil.

Turkey is buying oil from Isis.

But ultimately, there would have to be ground troops, if we wish to defeat Isis, and an occupation of ten years or more, to re-build the country.

Jeremy Corbyn has raised serious questions. For doing so, attacked by his own MPs.

What is sickening are the Labour MPs who will vote for war to stab Jeremy Corbyn in the back. . They will vote for bombing, the killing of civilians, increase risk of terrorism, purely out of their hatred of Jeremy Corbyn.

We must force vote of No Confidence on the MPs, and have them de-selected. They are a disgrace.

There must be a free vote. MPs cannot be told by Party to vote on a matter of war.

Jeremy Corbyn must grant a free vote, and call upon other parties to do likewise.

Yesterday saw demonstrations and marches across the UK opposing the bombing of Syria.

This evening at 1800 GMT Sunday 29 November 2015 a twitterstorm. Please use the hashtag #DontBombSyria with a personal message explaining why you are against the bombing of Syria.

Following the downing of a Russian jet by Turkey, Vladimir Putin has imposed economic sanctions on Turkey, these include restrictions on imports, ban on charter flights and a ban on tour operators offering holidays in Turkey.

Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Imogen Heap is a rare example of someone in the music industry who knows what she is about. As does cellist Zoe Keating.

A music event, with a little music.

Imogen Heap used the event to release Tiny Human into the wild with the help of Mycelia, a blockchain for tracking and cataloguing music.

This one action, release of Tiny Human, could change the face of the music industry, and at a stroke, eliminate the middle men who for years have been parasites on artists and music lovers.

Imogen Heap:

I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if I could decide what I wanted to do with my music?. I might decide, today’s my birthday, I’m going to give all of my music to everyone for free today. At the moment, I can’t do that. Because it’s out there, and once it’s out there, I don’t really have a say in it any more.

Zoe Keating:

I can imagine a ledger of all that information and an ecosystem of killer apps to visualize usage and relationships. I can imagine a music exchange where the real value of a song could be calculated on the fly. I can imagine instant, frictionless micropayments and the ability to pay collaborators and investors in future earnings without it being an accounting nightmare.

Imogen Heap:

It feels as if the music industry is a complete mess, a rusty, overstretched, tired machine. Grappling with a lot of old crooked contracts that don’t reflect our times, music services that run on greed to please shareholders smothered in buy-buy-buy adverts, dated accounting setups favouring anyone but the artist thanks to gross inefficiencies, confusing royalty statements and delayed payments… plus patchy copyright databases. It is almost impossible to find out who REALLY gets what.

Artists create the music, but if signed to a record label, have very little control.

We hear all the time of artists being owed millions. The latest Sly Stone, living in a van.

Bandcamp enables artists to put their music out there. Fans can decide if they like it or not, if they do, they can download, choose to pay the artists some money. The artists also get the data.

Zoe Keating distributes her music on bandcamp, for example her album Into The Trees.

Zoe Keating is unusual in that she publishes her earnings on-line for all to see. Contrary to the rubbish we hear from the major record labels, piracy and sharing is not a problem, it is services like spotify that are screwing everyone.

I initially published my digital music earnings because the dominant story in the press on artist earnings did not reflect my reality, nor that of musical friends I talked to. None of us were concerned about file sharing/piracy, we seemed to sell plenty of music directly to listeners via pay-what-you-want services while at the same time earn very little from streaming.

On bandcamp, music is offered at a low price, or pay-what-you-think-it-is-worth. Far from seeing this as an opportunity to rip artists off, fans will often pay more than the asking price.

Interesting comment from cellist Zoe Keating on the number of times her music appears (unauthorised) in youtube videos.

… other than hit songs, it is near impossible to know what the real popularity of a piece of music is. Nielsen recognized this and added streams to SoundScan rankings, but the internet is far more interesting than that.

What about popularity by “use?” To use myself as an example again, there are to date 15,000 videos on YouTube with my music in them, none of them by me. The videos are other people’s unlicensed dance performances, commercial films, TV shows, student films, experimental films, art projects, soundtracks to gaming session, etc. But currently there is no way to leverage that kind of enthusiasm. Only YouTube knows how popular my music is for unauthorized soundtracks.

With blockchain and Mycelia there would be a means to track, and to pay for that use.

There is a need for change, for the simple reason as Imogen Heaps says, the record businesses was founded on unscrupulous practices, screwing the artist, greed writ large.

It’s time to turn the music industry on its feet. I say that, as it’s always been topsy-turvy. The record industry built its foundation upon the blues and jazz of predominantly African American artists, who were not given the best deals for anything at the time… never mind record deals! Their pockets were the last thing on the deal makers minds. Lawyers and accountants made the decisions, and built contracts entirely around bringing in the big guns the most amount of money and the artists the least; if, indeed, any at all. These founding artists were given a shockingly bad deal, and ever since artists have been struggling to have their voice heard.

Combined with this, the industry wasn’t birthed in our digital age where online databases and flow of information are the norm. It’s adopted technology in various forms along the way, that invariably didn’t fit with what came before, and as a result, it’s become more and more fragmented and ultimately gotten itself into a right tangle.

Now it feels as if the music industry is a complete mess, a rusty, overstretched, tired machine. Grappling with a lot of old crooked contracts that don’t reflect our times, music services that run on greed to please shareholders smothered in buy-buy-buy adverts, dated accounting setups favouring anyone but the artist thanks to gross inefficiencies, confusing royalty statements and delayed payments (if any at all), coupled with the music itself not always being tagged effectively, and thus leading to mistakes… plus patchy copyright databases. It is almost impossible to find out who REALLY gets what. I’ve lost sleep in the past, scratching my head over the small print, with an icky feeling maybe I was selling my soul to do what I love. And, at the end of it all, more times than not, we are listening to seriously degraded quality sound files, on tinny speakers or trendy hyped up headphones lacking quality sound. Artists and music, deserve better.

Mycelia and blockchain offer the opportunity for change.

Who owns Mycelia? This is critical. It cannot be a high tech death star. It has to be an open common, to which we can all contribute, all draw from, part of the sharing economy.

Who owns the top level domain domain name .music? At the moment Amazon and Google are in the bidding. They should not be allowed to control .music, it should be in the global commons, there for artists and music lovers.

Distribution of artistic material, payments, gaining information, is not simply knowing where the material has ended up and obtaining due payment, it may even be as fundamental as deciding will it be released. Artists too often find material they would not wish to see released, is released, or conversely, material they wish to see released is not released.

Depressing, health care companies monitoring us, what we are listening to. Big Brother writ large and a serious infringement of privacy.

This is what was discussed at Europe is Kaput last week. If we are being monitored, are aware we are being monitored, does it change our behaviour, is this the world in which we wish to live? This is a world controlled by death star apps. But illustrates information can be used for good or bad. Artists want transparency, see where their music is going, but we do not wish to create a society in which our every thought, movement, action, is monitored, logged, manipulated by death stars.

It could not have been a pleasanter autumn afternoon, sunny, warm. My only regret I had not got out earlier.

Connecting bus, driver drove at a snail’s pace. Net result, I miss the bus to Farnham, and had to catch the next bus.

Along the River Wey, through Gostrey Meadow and up Downing Street.

A bag of local coxes apples from the greengrocer in Downing Street.

In the Parish Church, Tilbury Bach Society rehearsing, or at least a string quartet. I was not overly impressed. Did I wish to stay for the concert in the evening? Er, no thanks. I did though pick up a CD, violinist and pianist, recording of a live concert. Whether worth picking up, remains to be seen.

I recommended they published all their recordings on bandcamp. Record live, if no good, discard, if good then release on bandcamp. Use to publicise all their recordings, their concerts.

I walked down the alley to Bishop’s Meadow, but too late to walk around, sun had already set.

Waitrose. Last week the coffee was disgusting, undrinkable. Today ok, better than what would get in Starbucks or Costa.

Cappuccino at FCB coffee kiosk on Platform 2. No Shaun, but the new girl Jess did a pretty good job making a cappuccino. Undoubtedly the best place for coffee in Guildford. It begs the question why anyone drinks the disgusting coffee in Costa.

Taking a cappuccino delayed my walking along the River Wey into Guildford. As I passed under a bridge, there was a shout, and a friend was passing overhead. A few seconds either way and our paths would not have crossed.

As I had not eaten, we headed to the Thai takeaway at the top of the High Street.

Then we shopped for fruit and vegetables at the market in North Street and shared what we bought.

Cappuccino and cookie in Harris + Hoole. Brewed by Ellen, who is one of the best, and yet still came second, albeit a close second, to FCB coffee kiosk, which only goes to show how good the coffee at FCB coffee kiosk.

I do not believe the prime minister’s current proposal for airstrikes in Syria will protect our security and therefore cannot support it. — Jeremy Corbyn

The invasion of Iraq “substantially” increased the terrorist threat to the UK. — Baroness Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5

Isn’t it essential in any prelude to a war to be sure of your allies and be sure of your objectives? Isn’t it a fact that Turkey has been buying oil from Isil, they’ve been bombing the Kurds and the Kurds are fighting Isil, they shot down a Russian jet even though Russia wants to fight Isil. — Dennis Skinner

David Cameron makes case for war with Syria

Were we to believe the hysteria in the media, David Cameron made a convincing case for bombing Isis.

He did nothing of the sort. Either unbelievably naive, or like war criminal Tony Blair, launching the UK on another illegal war with all the consequences.

The forces on the ground Cameron is to call upon are non-existent.

The Kurds are the only effective force, they will fight to defend Kurdistan, they are not interested in liberating Syria.

letter from Jeremy Corbyn to Labour MPs

Jeremy Corbyn has laid out what are his criticisms. For doing so he was charged by one idiot Labour MP with mounting a coup. Labour MPs were reported to be angry. At least two unnamed former ministers have called for his resignation.

Dear Colleague,

The Prime Minister made a Statement to the House today making the case for a UK bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria. A copy of my response has already been circulated.

We have all been horrified by the despicable attacks in Paris and are determined to see the defeat of ISIS.

Our first priority must be the security of Britain and the safety of the British people. The issue now is whether what the Prime Minister is proposing strengthens, or undermines, our national security.

I do not believe that the Prime Minister today made a convincing case that extending UK bombing to Syria would meet that crucial test. Nor did it satisfactorily answer the questions raised by us and the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

In particular, the Prime Minister did not set out a coherent strategy, coordinated through the United Nations, for the defeat of ISIS. Nor has he been able to explain what credible and acceptable ground forces could retake and hold territory freed from ISIS control by an intensified air campaign.

In my view, the Prime Minister has been unable to explain the contribution of additional UK bombing to a comprehensive negotiated political settlement of the Syrian civil war, or its likely impact on the threat of terrorist attacks in the UK.

For these and other reasons, I do not believe the Prime Minister’s current proposal for air strikes in Syria will protect our security and therefore cannot support it.

The Shadow Cabinet met today for an initial discussion and debated the issues extensively. We will meet again on Monday, when we will attempt to reach a common view.

I will get in touch again when we know the timing of the debate and vote.

Yours

Jeremy Corbyn,
Leader of the Labour Party

Jeremy Corbyn has an honourable position of consulting people. What is wrong with communicating to MPs his position? And how can he be mounting a coup? Is he going to topple himself and replace himself as party leader?

More hysterical commentary in the mainstream media, the Labour Party in disarray.

It is less a party in disarray, and more a group of Labour MPs who will do everything to stab Jeremy Corbyn in the back. They will even go to war, to stab Jeremy Corby in the back. It is time, the many people who have joined the Labour Party, to turn it into a party that represents the 99%, once and for all, kicked out these MPs.

Why could not an actor or producer have read out the letter in order people understood what were his reservations?

Basically, bombing will make the situation worse, and there is no overall plan.

background

Syria and Iraq, are artificial countries, lines on a map drawn up by the French and British following the collapse of The Ottoman Empire. Lawrence of Arabia drew his own map based on the reality on the ground. He was sidelined.

These countries no longer exist.

We have Kurdistan in the north.

We have Isis, straddling Iraq and Syria.

The only viable political groups are the tribes, whose roots go back thousand of years.

War criminals Tony Blair and George W Bush destroyed Iraq. The Sunnis were marginalised.

Assad carried out repression, gunned down his own people, bombed his own people.

Repression, marginalisation of the Sunnis, out of which grew Isis.

Without addressing the root causes, something like Isis will arise.

do nothing

To do nothing is always an option.

If we do nothing, Isis will expand, they will seize more territory in the Middle East, then Europe.

Eventually we would have to deal with Isis, only at greater cost.

By the time we got around to dealing with Nazi Germany, it cost 20 million lives.

stop the flow of money to Isis

Jeremy Corbyn has suggested we stop the flow of money to Isis. This is a necessary but not sufficient condition.

The Gulf States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are financing Isis. Isis is selling oil through Turkey. Money, goods, weapons, oil and people flow across the Turkish border to Syria.

When Muslims leave UK and France to join Isis, they do not hop on a flight to Syria. They fly to Turkey, then cross the border onto Syria.

But even if we cut off the external flow of money, we underestimate Isis. They are mainly self-financing.

Isis is taxing local people. Isis is selling slaves. Isis is profiting from people smuggling to the tune of half a million pounds a week.

Tony Benn on bombing Iraq

I was in London during the Blitz in 1940, living where the Millbank tower now stands, where I was born. Some different ideas have come in there since. Every night, I went to the shelter in Thames House. Every morning, I saw Docklands burning. Five hundred people were killed in Westminster one night by a land mine. It was terrifying.

Are not Arabs and Iraqis terrified? Do not Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Does not bombing strengthen their determination? What fools we are to live as if war is a computer game for our children or just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.

Every Member of Parliament who votes for the Government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepting responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins, as I fear it will. That decision is for every hon. Member to take.

In my parliamentary experience, this a unique debate. We are being asked to share responsibility for a decision that we will not really be taking but which will have consequences for people who have no part to play in the brutality of the regime with which we are dealing.

The Blitz, strengthened the resolve to defeat Nazi Germany. Why do we think bombing of Isis is different? Every time we destroy a school, a mosque, what do we think the impact will be where ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,’ is taken literally, where every killing has to be avenged?

Simon Jenkins, former editor of The Times

Simon Jenkins, former editor of The Times, could not have put it better:

Jeremy Corbyn’s challenge to David Cameron on the bombing of Syria is unanswerable, and every Labour MP knows it. So too is his explanation of his position in his letter to his party. A British prime minister’s statement on the eve of war should never be taken at face value. We have heard these bombastic calls to foreign aggression – festooned with jingoist opinion polls – too many times. In Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, windy rhetoric and strategic waffle have substituted for rational argument. Cameron’s statement yesterday, full of talk of values, ways of life and examined consciences, was a classic of the genre.

Corbyn’s Labour enemies, consumed with hatred for his clique, were yesterday rerunning Suez. They were frantic, not about the bombing of Syria, but about being outflanked by a cynical Tory party on a matter of peace and war. Bombing Syria has nothing to do with terrorism, except possibly to increase the likelihood of it in Britain. It has nothing positive to contribute to Britain’s national security, which is not currently under threat. The idea that Isis might undermine British values is an insult to those values. That it might attain a caliphate in the Mile End Road is a fantasy of men shut up too long in a Cobra bunker.

free vote

When we go to war, we kill people, we send people to their death.

It is not something we do lightly, it is a last resort.

No Member of Parliament should be forced by his party how to vote, it should be as suggested by John McDonnell, a free vote in the House of Commons.

talk to tribal leaders

It has been suggested talk to Isis, enter into negotiations.

Isis will not talk, those who tried have got nowhere. Canon Andrew White invited Isis to dinner. They responded by offering to chop his head off.

Al-Qaeda were a problem in Iraq. We did not defeat them using force. We defeated them by talking to tribal leaders and convincing them to change sides. We then betrayed them.

military intervention

We know the war with Iraq increased the risk of terrorism. MI5 had its budget doubled the deal with that risk.

Bombing will make the situation worse.

Russia has been bombing Syria for over a month. It has made not an iota difference.

US has been bombing Isis for a year. During that period Isis has gained territory.

Bombing is not only counter-productive, it is futile. US planes are returning with full payload. They cannot find anything to bomb.

The only way to defeat Isis, will be a coalition of US, France, Russia and UK, others if they wish to join, with direct intervention on the ground.

Iraq gives a false impression of how easy it will be. In Iraq, conscripted soldiers, who either surrendered, or ran away. There were exceptions, where they dug in. We have seen how effective the Iraqi Army has been at fighting Isis. They run away, leaving behind all their weapons.

Isis are committed, they have had over a year to get dug in in towns. There would be brutal hand-to-hand fighting, many lives lost on both sides.

Syria would then have to be occupied for at least ten years. A rebuilding of the country. Democratic structures, not the sham democracy we see in the West, a participatory democracy based on the tribal groupings, networking and cooperating with each other. The physical infrastructure would be rebuilt by local people to give them employment.

Assad and his military would have to go. Anything less would be a betrayal of Syrian people. Assad put on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

And what of the national borders? Syria and Iraq no longer exist. They never did exist, apart from lines on a map. On the ground, they no longer exist.